Sunday, January 22, 2012

Goodbye Blue Sky

Joseph Vincent Paterno
1926 - 2012

May a million shooting stars illuminate your journey.

Hearts are heavy this morning in the Penn State family and the world now spins a little slower on it's axis. A life-long constant has been taken away from many of us after the indescribable circumstances of the past 2 grueling months. Thank you Joe for all you did for your fellow man, your community and college football. I've learned more valuable life lessons from you than I can put into words right now, and I will never forget it. In a not so small way you made the world a better place to be, and when you come right down to it that's what it's all about. I can only hope the healing powers of time come quickly for the Paterno family.

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

-Rudyard Kipling

One Last White Out

Beaver Stadium - January 22, 2012


Please consider signing the petition to rename Beaver Stadium in honor of Joe Paterno: